OUR ORGANISATION

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FNEHA arose as part of recommendations from the 2022 First Nations meeting for

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Eye Health Conference (NATSIEHC) held on Larrakia

Country, Darwin Northern Territory. Designed and chaired by Shaun Tatipata ( Ngarrindjeri/Wuthathi), this meeting, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander professionals with an interest in or working within eye health came together and detailed the future eye and vision care aspirations for Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander health professionals going into the year 2030. What helped to

contextualize this work was a crude assessment of national eye health services in 2030 by

The Indigenous Eye Health Unit, University of Melbourne.

Associate Professor Mitchell Anjou and Dr Guy Gillor presented this assessment and

established that with population estimates for First Nations people projected to reach

1 million by the year 2030, it was noted that there would be inadequate services and service

staff to manage the additional population needs into the year 2030.

The group used this information to pull out some activities and themes that could support

strengthened services to scale up and meet projected needs. The group spoke about many

important areas for improvement and concluded that there was a need for an Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander eye health and vision care peak body to represent the voices and

vision of the community into the future. The Vision 2030 workshop report was published because of this work Shaun Tatipata enlisted the help of Lose (Rose) Fonua (Wiradjuri) to set forward to build the First Nations Eye Health Alliance. FNEHA was incorporated and registered as a charity on 18th July 2023 and continues today.

FNEHA is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander charity led by committed and well-known Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders that are active advocates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing. They bring a rich leadership lens to the eye health collaborative and work that we will do in this space and they are passionate about seeing our communities to be healthy, well and flourishing. FNEHA also has a strong community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander professionals working in or have an interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health and vision care. Our future is a bright one with their thinking leading the way to advocating for stronger systems that improve the eye health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.